Quotable Quotes

“A Christ-centered ministry that lacks trust is like a teenager running through a fireworks factory with a lit blowtorch. It isn’t whether something is going to blow up—it’s just a matter of when.” Dan Busby

“Leadership is an achievement of trust.” Peter F. Drucker

“We need the kind of integrity that will catch the attention of the world at large just as it did in the time of the early church.” Joel Belz

“Trust cannot be bought or commanded, inherited or enforced. To maintain it, leaders must continually earn it.” Max De Pree

“When trust permeates a ministry, great things are possible, not the least of which is an opportunity to reach the ministry’s potential.” Max De Pree

“Leaders who keep promises and followers who respond in kind create an opportunity to generate enormous energy around their commitment to serve others.” Max De Pree

“When things go awry, trust powers the generators until the problem is fixed.” Max De Pree

“Once trust is tarnished, it is hard to restore it to its original glow.” William Arthur Ward

“The largest penalty paid by Christ-centered ministries is the ‘low-trust’ penalty.” Dan Busby

“When a serious breach of trust occurs, givers flee as surely as leaves fall from the trees in autumn. The losses will not be limited to dollars—they will be in terms of time, talent and treasure.” Dan Busby

“Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.” Edward R. Murrow

“What is true has never been a question to be decided by polls or popular opinion. Truth isn’t ‘democratic’—it’s something that God has written into the very fabric of nature.” Chuck Colson

“Once someone tells a lie about a person or a ministry—especially if the lie is shared in cyberspace—the lie lives on and continues to harm the people and organizations.” Dan Busby

“He occasionally stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.” Winston Churchill said of Stanley Baldwin

“If I only had three words of advice, they would be, ‘Tell the truth.’ If I got three more words, I’d add, ‘All the time.’” Randy Pausch

“When ministries lack trust, the issue that created the lack of trust is on center stage and Christ shifts to the wings.” Dan Busby

“Our responsibility is to give the world the right impression of God.” John Wesley

“Jesus Christ does not want to be our helper; He wants to be our life. He does not want us to work for Him, He wants us to let Him do His work through us, using us as we use a pencil to write with—better still, using us as one of the fingers on His hand.” Charles G. Trumbull

“Abiding in Jesus isn’t fixing our attention on Christ, but it is being one with Him. . . A man is abiding just as much when he is sleeping for Jesus, as when he is awake and working for Jesus. Oh, it is a very sweet thing to have one’s mind just resting there.” J. Hudson Taylor

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” Aldous Huxley

“Trust ministries inspire positive perceptions, creating the power of a rolling ocean wave—building a tsunami of trust—and, more importantly, give the right impression of Christ our Savior!” Dan Busby

“Man does not see reality as it is, but only as he perceives it, and his perception may be mistaken or biased.” Rudolf Dreikurs

“Today, truth is on the scaffold and innuendoes are on the throne—and innuendoes equal guilt in the mind of many.” Dan Busby

“A lie travels half way around the world before truth gets is shoes on.” Mark Twain

“Especially with a camera in everyone’s pocket, there are no secrets. Assume anything you say or do will soon be on the Internet, social media, or television.” Dan Busby

“Your reputation is in the hands of others. That’s what reputation is. You can’t control that. The only thing you can control is your character. Wayne Dyer

“Leaders are leaders because they are the greater servants. The way up is down. The way to honor our Lord and Savior is to serve. There is always room for one more servant.” Francis M. Cosgrove, Jr.

“As the leader goes, so goes the ministry. As the soul goes, so goes the leader.” Stephen Macchia

“If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln

“Trust travels down the organizational chart and rarely up the chart. When the top leader is trusted, a strong message is communicated to other staff.” Dan Busby

“When ministry leaders demonstrate trust, the message will be spread to those who interact with them.” Dan Busby

“It is a spiritual law: Leadership means leading by example. No one is expected to follow leaders unless they lead by example.” Dan Busby

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Selfless leadership is simply about more of Christ and less of us. We must be in second place—not elbowing our way to the front.” Dan Busby

“Teamwork depends on trust. Competency in relationships is built on trust.” Dan Busby

“Trust grows when people see leaders translate their personal integrity into organizational fidelity. At the heart of fidelity lies truth-telling and promise-keeping.” Max De Pree

“Trust is the starting point for all healthy relationships, the fuel for team ministry, and the cornerstone of group effectiveness.” Stephen Macchia

“Trust begins with a personal commitment to respect others, to take everyone seriously. Respect demands that we first recognize each other’s gifts and strengths and interest; then we must integrate them into the work of the organization.” Stephen Macchia

“Leaders who keep their promises and followers who respond in kind create an opportunity to generate enormous trust around their commitment to serve others.” Max De Pree

“The most successful people do not make up the rules as they go. They have a set of rules that they follow and they stick to them.” John Chancellor

“When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From this moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.” Edmund Burke

“When pressures come like a flood against a Christ-centered ministry, it is vital to rely on the biblical rules of ministry.” Dan Busby

“Discernment increases our capacity for leaders to “see” what God is up to in the place they are called to lead. Instead of hearing God’s voice thundering from Mount Horeb, discernment relies on the more subtle dynamics of the Holy Spirit.” Dan Busby

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” Thomas Paine

“A rule of life is like a trellis which offers support and guidance for a plant, helping it to grow in a certain direction.” Stephen Macchia

“When you go the second mile, the traffic will be so sparse it will seem like you are in the HOV lane on the freeway.” Dan Busby

“Nothing costs so little, goes so far, and accomplishes so much as a single act of merciful service.” Auguste Renoir

“The world cannot always understand a person’s profession of faith, but it can understand service.” Ian Maclaren

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But the Good Samaritan reversed the question, ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“True greatness true leadership, is achieved not by reducing men to one’s service but in giving oneself in selfless service to them.” J. Oswald Sanders

“A captain who would rather stay in port than go to sea does not engender trust.” Dan Busby

“Courage is the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” Winston Churchill

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” C. S. Lewis

“Fraud is a persistent risk that doesn’t discriminate by size or type of organization. Fraud is an equal-opportunity problem.” Dan Busby

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” Dale Carnegie

“Vacationers get tired of sunsets, millionaires get tired of money, kids get tired of toys, and Christians get tired of doing good.” John Piper

“The Lord wants you to have an extraordinary board. Imagine the potential when you energize exceptional board members who give spiritual oversight and excellent governance to your God-given mission.” John Pearson

“Christ-centered boards are different from other boards if biblical principles are applied.” Dan Busby

“Mirrors are instruments for revelation in God’s Word. Using a mirror to assess the absence or presence of Christ in our governance practices helps with our self-evaluation.” Dan Busby

“Spiritual leaders who know God; are confident in God; seek to find God’s will; are self-effacing; find and follow God’s methods; delight to obey God; are motivated by love for God and man; are God-dependent.” Stephen Macchia

“How then shall a Christian bear fruit? By efforts and struggles to obtain that which is freely given? . . . No: there must be a full concentration of the thoughts and affections on Christ; a complete surrender of the whole being to Him; a constant looking to Him for grace.” Harriet Beecher Stowe

“When individuals join a board, they often enter an arena full of lions and tigers while expecting flowers and melodic tunes.” Dan Busby

“Find the ‘sweet spot’ between absolute transparency and non-transparency—it’s called appropriate transparency—where trust is maximized with minimal disruption or risk to the ministry.” Dan Busby

“Our problem as leaders is we do everything we know to do. That’s not enough. We need to do everything God wants us to do.” Richard Blackaby

“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.” Mother Teresa

“There are many qualities that contribute to good leadership, but it is our commitment to discerning and doing the will of God through the help of the Holy Spirit that distinguishes spiritual leadership from other kinds of leadership.” Ruth Haley Barton

Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong, it is the difference between right and almost right.” Charles H. Spurgeon

“We do not get to listen to God’s voice thundering on the top of Mount Horeb. Instead, we must rely on the more subtle dynamics of the Holy Spirit witnessing with the human spirit about things that are true.” Dan Busby

“Watch where Jesus went. The one dominant note in His life was to do His Father’s will. His was not the way of wisdom or of success, but the way of faithfulness.” Oswald Chambers

“Spiritual discernment is a sense of God’s ongoing tap-tap-tap on the shoulder of our hearts.” Stephen Macchia

“While measuring a ministry’s own outcomes can be meaningful, only the Lord can measure how well we are contributing to the Great Commission. God does not provide a system of points, stars, or numeric system to evaluate our results.” Dan Busby

“People who are servants—humbly, honestly, and joyfully—keep getting revealed as the biggest winners. People who recognize and embrace their smallness keep getting bigger and bigger in God’s eyes. It’s the oddest scoring system.” John Ortberg

“It is a fool’s errand to overly emphasize the percentage allocations for program expense, fundraising expense, and administrative expense to compete with other ministries.” Dan Busby

“Do not worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” Abraham Lincoln

“The entire life of Jesus isn’t the story of somebody climbing up a ladder; it’s a picture of someone coming down—a series of demotions. The problem with spending our lives climbing up the ladder is that we will go right past Jesus, for He’s coming down.” John Ortberg

“When arrogance strikes, we stop listening to our critics.” Dan Busby

“Expense allocation is not a precise process. In many cases, the difference between the overhead ratios of two very similar ministries is more a function of accounting methods than operational differences.” Dan Busby

“Only God knows the outcomes for a particular ministry. And, He keeps it a secret because on the one hand, if we knew the outcomes we may be very disappointed. Or, on the other hand, it might go to our head.” Bruce McNichol

“I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.” John Wesley

“Character is more than a man-to-his-God humility, for it involves transparency and accountability to others, not merely a private quest for purity.” Jack Hayford

“Verifiable accountability is not a suggestion, it is the principle Jesus taught the disciples—and us!” Dan Busby

“The ancient Romans had a tradition. Whenever one of their engineers constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the engineer assumed accountability for his work in the most profound way possible; he stood under the arch.” Michael Armstrong

“The more people learn to be fully accountable for their lives, the more freedom each of us can enjoy and the more fulfilling all of our lives will be.” Reed Konsler

“History is a grim reminder of what happens to those who think they have no law but themselves.” Ravi Zacharias

“A transaction that is not made in the best interest of the ministry is unethical at best and illegal at worst.” Dan Busby

“Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.” George Washington

“The perception of a conflict of interest can be just as damaging to a ministry’s reputation as an actual conflict.” Dan Busby

“You know you just borrowed trouble when a new board member says: ‘If I can’t conduct business with the ministry, there is no reason for me to serve on the board.’” Dan Busby

“If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.” Neil Simon

“Following Christ is a wild adventure full of risk, frustration, excitement, and setbacks. It is not an evening stroll in a planned community along a well-manicured path.” Larry Crabb, Jr.

“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” Peter F. Drucker

“Managing risk is very different from managing strategy. Risk management focuses on the negative—threats and failures rather than opportunities and successes.” Robert S. Kaplan and Annette Mikes

“There is nothing more important for a CEO than having the right strategy and the right choice of goals. And for the board, the right strategy is second only to having the right CEO.” Ram Charan

“Fortunately or unfortunately, the one predictable thing in any organization is the crisis. That always comes. That’s when you do depend on the leader: The job of the leader is to build an organization that is battle-ready, that has high morale, that knows how to behave, that trusts itself, and where people trust one another.” Peter F. Drucker

“When ministries truly trust God for their resources, there is no room for even a hint of deceptive resource-raising practices.” Dan Busby

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Abraham Lincoln